I voted and was going to make comment at the "What DAW do you use or own"thread but decided not to.

I'm still in awe of what's capable in a DAW.
It started with MasterTracks Pro, then Cubase VST, DP 4.5 , Logic 8, more or less coming full circle to Cubase 5, all on the Mac.

If I had more than one head and an extra dimension of time, I'd love to work with multiple DAW. It's been a lot of fun learning what each one is capable of. But at this point my brain goes into overload so I've reduced my focus to one DAW.

The link below is to a 1994 Mac DAW comparison. It's interesting that that despite major advancements in all these DAW, some things remain more or less the same. The article is obviously outdated so please don't get distracted by the comments about Mac, PC and Atari at the beginning of the article.

I remember that article pretty well -- although I'm pretty sure I jettisoned the print copy in the fevered days before I sold my old house... I got rid of around 12+ linear feet of EM, EQ, GP, Keyboard, Mix and some others.

But I remember that article. Only a year and a half or so before, as I was about to buy my first ADAT, I explored the cost of a (Mac-based) DAW -- and, at that point, the price quoted to me for software and interface for a Logic-based rig was around $10K including a high end Mac to run it. I went with the first of two ADATs instead.

But, encouraged by a couple of Mac pals, I bought Mastertracks Pro for Windows and used it to sync MIDI with my ADATs (or vice versa, actually, via the old BRC unit). [In true form, almost as soon as I had MTP, they said, Gee, you should have got Cubase instead. ]

In '96 I got tired of waiting for and trying to get info out of Korg, who had been flying a vaporware ADAT-computer interface for quite a while (and who did not have an email address at that point nor answer their always busy phones!) and, after some investigation, I bought a Frontier interface (that was, you know, actually available). That year, some of the remaining pieces of Windows 95's then-revolutionary dedicated multichannel audio, MIDI, and the basic architecture of their plug in layers was put in place, and the next year, Cakewalk introduced their full DAW software CW Pro Audio 6 (CW5 had had the ability to record and sync 2 audio tracks... kind of a little teaser that showed the promise). When I called up my Mac pals to tell them I finally had 8 channels of audio rolling, one of them called my pc "an overgrown adding machine" and refused (very briefly) to believe I was actually recording audio. He said, you mean you're playing back multi-timbral samples via MIDI and I said, no, I've been doing that since 1990 on my "overgrown adding machine" and pointed out that since I'd spent much of the 80s in studios recording audio onto tape I probably knew when I was recording audio. A very bizarre conversation. (For which he apologized the next time we talked, allowing as how I probably wasn't imagining it all, after all. )

I voted and was going to make comment at the "What DAW do you use or own"thread but decided not to.

I'm still in awe of what's capable in a DAW.
It started with MasterTracks Pro, then Cubase VST, DP 4.5 , Logic 8, more or less coming full circle to Cubase 5, all on the Mac.

If I had more than one head and an extra dimension of time, I'd love to work with multiple DAW. It's been a lot of fun learning what each one is capable of. But at this point my brain goes into overload so I've reduced my focus to one DAW.

The link below is to a 1994 Mac DAW comparison. It's interesting that that despite major advancements in all these DAW, some things remain more or less the same. The article is obviously outdated so please don't get distracted by the comments about Mac, PC and Atari at the beginning of the article.

The article predates my DAW virginity by a yr or so - IIRC, Logic was v.3.7 and I ran PT 3.4 (till 4.0) with an AMIII card - good times!

Funny thing is - after moving up 3 tiers into TDM territory, I just stopped and called it quits. Tho I have an LE/002R system to keep current, I'm no longer running on the constant upgrade treadmill - I'm grandfathering my OS 9.2.2/PT 5.1.3 Mix+++ to keep me going till I inherit an HD system for pennies in the coming yr!

It a staggering realization to consider how much has changed in a relatively few years in the computer software/hardware realm of music production. In contrast, my guitars and bass are as they were and continue to be.

It's funny to think that at one time, being able to record two tracks of audio was revolutionary. There was a time I was looking into the Turtle Beach stuff in anticipation of acquiring a 486 DX. That didn't happen, but the humble 75 MHz Apple 7200 PPC starting things off.

The Tascam Porta One was supposed to be a note book or sketch book device. But when I acquired one in 1985, I wanted more!!! Apparently so did everyone else. Happy times those were. But we're incredibly fortunately to have such powerful tools at our disposal for relatively cheap.

I've been loved and been fascinated by audio recording since I was about 3-1/2 when someone pulled a candid mic on me with a recorder that used the then new technology of magnetic tape instead of magnetic wire or grooved disks.

And I put in thousands of hours on a succession of four track tape machines at home (while freelancing in commercial studios on bigger rigs).

But the very first projectI did on my newly put in service DAW rig lit up my brain with possibilities in a way I'd barely dared dream about.

It's funny to think that at one time, being able to record two tracks of audio was revolutionary. There was a time I was looking into the Turtle Beach stuff in anticipation of acquiring a 486 DX. That didn't happen, but the humble 75 MHz Apple 7200 PPC starting things off.
.

LOL. The place I was working in had just that system - Turtle Beach 2 track for editing/sequencing tracks!

Revolutionary as it was, a one gig drive was a grand plus, not to mention what a 486 cost at the time...

OMG! I remember reading that and pouring over it, planning plotting and scheming. Back then a Mac 8500 would have cost something like 5 grand.

That was why I bought my first ADAT. 5 g's to get the host computer and around another 5 g's for Logic and a 4 channel converter. Versus 4 g's for the then brand-new ADAT. Still, I totally felt like HDD based recording was the future. (I'm reminded of the mid 90s Newsradio episode with the "cutting edge business consultant" who said, "I'm convinced computers are the future. I don't actually have one myself but... " )

BTW, noting your BB moniker -- I bought a CZ1000 (the full size key version of the CZ101) back in the mid-80s (the guy who sold it to me 'forgot' to tell me that, even with the generic power supply he sold it with plugged in, that it sucked down 5 D cell batteries at a time in a matter of single digit hours... (I called a shop and they said, well, those 'boards need a beefy PS, why not try the official Casio PS? I did, and stopped going through D-cells like it was the end of the world) In fact, my old MIDI "I" CZ1000 was the first MIDI device I ever hooked up to my original "16 bit" Soundblaster back in the 80s. (It was only 16 bit if you were recording mono -- if you wanted stereo you had to drop back to 8 bit sound!)

Of course, being MIDI "I" there was no multi-timbrality possible so it was a rather short-lived experiment. (By '89 though, I had a multi-timbral wavetable Kawai K4 hooked up via a SB AWE32 [that I bought when the earlier mentioned Turtle Beach card turned out to be such a bummer]... I wasn't crazy about climbing back in the Soundblaster bed, but after the TB experience, Creative almost felt friendly. In a stupid kind of way. At least it worked right out the box.)

Funny, in '93 I was running Cubase Audio on my Atari Falcon... 16 tracks of playback, but only two simultaneous record. This was the SHIZZLE for the time. It even had built in reverb using the DSP built into the Falcon (though that lowered track playback to 8 tracks, and it sounded pretty crappy). Eight tracks was plenty for me back then, combined with all the MIDI tracks.

I remember each time I did a recording, I'd have to wait for the waveform to draw. It took a while!

It was a VERY COOL system for the time, none of my musician friends could believe what I was doing. I did some great music on that thing.

That was why I bought my first ADAT. 5 g's to get the host computer and around another 5 g's for Logic and a 4 channel converter. Versus 4 g's for the then brand-new ADAT. Still, I totally felt like HDD based recording was the future. (I'm reminded of the mid 90s Newsradio episode with the "cutting edge business consultant" who said, "I'm convinced computers are the future. I don't actually have one myself but... " )

BTW, noting your BB moniker -- I bought a CZ1000 (the full size key version of the CZ101) back in the mid-80s (the guy who sold it to me 'forgot' to tell me that, even with the generic power supply he sold it with plugged in, that it sucked down 5 D cell batteries at a time in a matter of single digit hours... (I called a shop and they said, well, those 'boards need a beefy PS, why not try the official Casio PS? I did, and stopped going through D-cells like it was the end of the world) In fact, my old MIDI "I" CZ1000 was the first MIDI device I ever hooked up to my original "16 bit" Soundblaster back in the 80s. (It was only 16 bit if you were recording mono -- if you wanted stereo you had to drop back to 8 bit sound!)

Of course, being MIDI "I" there was no multi-timbrality possible so it was a rather short-lived experiment. (By '89 though, I had a multi-timbral wavetable Kawai K4 hooked up via a SB AWE32 [that I bought when the earlier mentioned Turtle Beach card turned out to be such a bummer]... I wasn't crazy about climbing back in the Soundblaster bed, but after the TB experience, Creative almost felt friendly. In a stupid kind of way. At least it worked right out the box.)

Sweet. Yeah, I love the battery annihilating CZ-101- I've gotten so much mileage out of that little, flat, grey, rectangular chirping machine. I inherited mine from a dear childhood friend and so I'll never sell it.

There's a custom SoundDiver that can unlock some of the CZ synths' hidden parameters..

After the Tascam Port One came the double speed Fostex 260 4 track cassette. I wanted an 8 track in the worst way (Fostex A8, Tascam 38, or even better, the Tascam 388). I realized that while I could cough up the funds to acquire the machine, I simply couldn't afford to feed it. Even 1/4 inch tape was not a sustainable cost at the time.

That's when I started to explore MIDI (Alesis HR-16/MMT8) tape-synced to the Fostex, driving a Roland U220, a very sweet period for me.

I went so far as to build PAiA compressors, preamps, the Tube Head, and the Quadrafuzz in order to have decent sounding outboard gear.

Fast forward a few years: My first Mac (PPC 7200) was initially going to be used to run MOTU's Wave Edit for the Akai DR4D and Mastertracks Pro.

No sooner did I get everything in order when I first saw ads for Steinbergs VST version of Cubase. I knew right then, that the Akai would have have a short run before being displaced.

I eventually acquired a low profile Powercenter 150, installed an AMlll card and put the DR4D in storage which is still working with the original hard drive after all these in year believe it or not.

Few days ago i have found the Samplitude 4.1 Demo i once got of a friend who worked at radio station. If i remember correctly Samplitude was first with audio nondestructive editing.

My first love was Tascam 244 that i used for songwriting without messing with too many buttons cos it was to much high-tech then.

Tascam 244 many great records cut on those!!! love it ! Now that's a gutsy tool cutting a record on that.

I used samplitude since the first version 1993/94 I use to use a Digital Audio Labs card to lay down tracks. Before that I had digi soundtools on a quadra which sucked that was only 4 tracks but I made demos and mastered with it.

The thing about Sek'd was they had the best cd burning app RR back then in 94/95 that let you drop indices with zero lengths. The only other app at the time was masterlist cd but that was expensive and still you had to have a posttrack leadin pause on the first track which was no good for some applications. They always made stable apps. Lot less buggy than cakewalk or cubase Though I've since switched to Nuendo I really miss Samplitude. It was fast as far as audio goes. But I just love the midi and VSTi in Nuendo it so much faster than samp in that dept. But still buggy unfortunately.....

When you look back at the DAW its come so far. I used to put those things to the test back then. Mixing with a PII and a PIII was not fun. I had so much SCSI hardware to make up for the CPUs back then I went broke. IDE was not your friend when it came to recording a record. Plugins back then just sucked up CPU like a vacuum... I think it was like a 166 or 200mhz cpu with like 32 meg of ram I mixed records on. They sounded like shit but it was a DAW better than adat which I never owned or had to own. I remember the first MOTU 8ch unit I bought I was in Heaven dumping 8 tracks at a time from the JH24 to the PC. I remember printing a snare hit from my r8 at the beginning of every song on all 24 tracks so I could line them up when I got them on the PC. Loved that shit.

I remember a buddy of mine bought a protools system w/ 24 tracks of i/o I was like 24 tracks? you mean 24 all at once? lol
man what 15 years time brings. Imagine what it's gonna be like in 15 more years? What will the converters sound like? I sure hope analog tape makes a comeback.

I started with a Yamaha MT100 MkII cassette four track with dbx and electronic transport etc. Really nice specs for a four track and a great sound when used properly. I bought this in January 1991 and had it until May 1997 when I upgraded to a Fostex DMT8 Mk2 digital multitrack, one of the very first digital 8 track portastudio type. I did some superb recording with this along with a Fostex D5 DAT recorder, a 4MB Atari STE with extra MIDI OUT via the modem port, plus I had a heap of studio gear by then.

I then stupidly sold the recording gear for a PC setup....HUGE mistake and I have not made any music since and that was ten years ago! However I have since upgraded my Atari setup and also about to receive a Falcon 030 with 14MB soon. I love the feel and silent operation of the Atari. For MIDI the STE cannot be beaten.